Superman Rex 2 of 7
by luckiest man alive
Summary: Earth's most powerful defender turns, and Batman sets out to stop him. In the second chapter "The Defiant", Lex Luthor faces down his nemesis for the last time, but not without a bang.
1. The Resistance

I've been meaning to write this story for a very long time. The first chapter is told in a classic narrative, but hopefully as the story progresses I'll be able to jump around different story-telling styles.

This work is inspired by Mark Waid's _Iredeemable_, which is a great read. You should pick it up, if you have the chance.

That said, I hope you enjoy the first chapter!

Superman Rex.

The Resistance.

The entirety of his determined tension is calm as he types away on his super computer. Once, during a better, kinder time his peers had referred to it as his Bat-Computer; but those times were long past. As is his nature, he didn't even blink when he heard the roof of his cave get punctured by a single man, faster then a speeding bullet. The alarms, though outraced, went off anyway.

Batman could feel Superman's presence fill the cave. He could hear the slow, deliberate steps toward him, so pulled his cowl over his head, and, without turning, simply said "Clark." It was remniscient of the many times it had happened before, but this time was different.

"Bruce. I'm surprised you're not going for your kryptonite."

Still completely focused on his monitor, Batman stated the simple truth. "if you wanted to kill me, you'd have done in a minute ago, before I'd even have the chance to say a single word," then, in an undertone that belied its merit, "like you did the Marvels. and Zattana."

His hands returned to typing.

Superman smiled.

Bruce said "So. if you aren't here to kill me, what are you here for?" And because he was who he was, his voice remained steady.

Superman's smile widened. He extended his hands, covered completely in sleek, white armor "I'm surprised, Bruce. Aren't you going to ask me why I'm doing this? Or have you figured me out already?

Tell me."

His monitor blazed with images and charts, of diagrams and comparisons. He read them for a while, and the alarm sirens sang in the silence.

"I know you're not a robot. I know that, physically, you're completely identical to the Clark Kent I know.

I know that there are no known mind parasites controlling your actions, and neither are there any telepathic controls."

Without turning, without revealing at all the storm of anger, of fear and of confusion that he truly, honestly felt at seeing one of his closest friends become a monster:

"I know that you're responsible for the death of millions."

A trickle of anger,

"Some of those people were our friends, you bastard."

He resumed typing.

"And yet here you are. I honestly expected to see you holding a chunk of kryptonite I'd think that you, of all people, would have prepared for this eventuallity." A pause. "Prepared for me." His voice, though cold and unrepentant, still had the shadow of the same one that rang of confidence, of It's going to be okay. of this looks like a job for Superman.

Batman's voice was as obsidian as ever, "what would the man of steel be doing in anything as human as armor, if he weren't covering weaknesses? You're not stupid Clark, and neither am I. So what makes you think I haven't been preparing?" His fingers, dancing across the keyboard, picked up even more speed.

Superman's eyes, the only part of his face not covered by his helmet, glowed a faint blue, as he began to read the electrical impulses, the very bytes in the super computer. In half a second he knew exactly what it was, and was terribly unimpressed. "A hyper nuero-programming binary, designed to stop me in my tracks if ever I should read it completely. You didn't really think it was going to work, did you?" His eyes then glowed into a deep red and Batman covered his face with his cape and jumped away from his computer, sparks erupting where his hands were a second before.

Systems initiated by the initial burst of heat, thousands of microbots blinked to life, and zeroed in on the source- Superman's eyes.

He said, "it tickles," even as they dug in with their diamond tipped drills, heat-resistant exoskeletons melting away fast.

There was a flash of red and lightning, and Batman was gone. In the second that Superman took to accelerate away from the robots and crush them or and incenerate them with his heat vision, he could have seen the Flash pick Batman up, and could have followed him, and quite possibly kill him right on the spot; but he was distracted, and that too was a part of the plan.

The fastest man alive ran, straight into nothing, rippling straight into the last safe haven in all the earth. and stopped in front of a band of people, the last hope of humankind.

The Flash stopped and put Batman down and said in a heavy, hoarse voice "My God, Bruce. What's going on?"

His eyes were lined with dark bags.

The Batman took of his cowl and said, frankly, "We have to stop Superman." Glancing at the assmebled group of people, he asked "did you get them all?"

The Flash shook his head, and rested his hands on his knees. "No, I'm sorry."

Batman put a hand on his shoulder and said, "Don't be. I'm sorry. I could've kept him distracted a little longer." Then. "Stay strong, soldier." He then looked at the crowd. Some of the were in casual clothes, most were in their uniforms. They looked to him with a desperate hope, ragged and tired. Defiant.

It was at this point that he thought that, if Superman were in his place, he would have addressed the crowd in such a way that would give them hope. He would assure them that everything would be alright. That they would persevere in the end. Triumph in the end. And he wouldn't have been lying.

But they didn't have Superman.

He gestured towards the Martian Manhunter

"J'onn will coordinate our resistance. You will answer to him. You will follow his instructions to the letter. The fact that you are here, that you are still breathing, is thanks to his telepathy and management. He will assign you your quarters, your missions, your meal times and sleep times and free times."

He paused, the crowd was quiet.

"Our headquarters can only be entered and exited through the pocket dimension gateway through which the Flash brought you in. We are up against a man who can hear a cell divide. Do not step out until you are told to."

"Look around you, throughout our resistance we will try to recruit more people, but I need you to be able to work with each other. Trust each other."

"We all know that Superman's taken apart entire armies, that he's subjugated governments. That he's killed more of our friends then we can count. Make no mistake, we are the line in the sand. We must stop him."

And that was it.

He expected there to be more friction caused by his orders, that the his audience would react violently to the fact that they had to give up their families to be here, or demand more information or more freedom or more hope.

But against a man who would, and could, cripple the world, there was very little room to be picky.

He felt J'onn's telepathic voice in the back of his mind, "Batman. Diana, Wally, Hal and I will meet you upstairs in half an hour." Then, link filled with profound sorrow. "I fear for the world, Bruce."

Next:

Lex Luthor's last will and testament, more of Superman's actions and atrocities are revealed, and the seeds of the resistance begin to take root!

Also, a letter: Ghost in the Machine, I hoped you enjoyed the edited version. Thanks for the review!


	2. The Defiant

Superman Rex 2 of 7: The Defiant

His name was Lex Luthor.

He looked at himself in his mirror and nodded to himself, satisfied. Clean shaven and trimmed, he looked a bit like he did when he was _The_ Lex Luthor, one of the most powerful men in history. However, the heavy bags under his eyes and the wrinkles over his face betrayed his ordeal. It was not as if his multi-billion dollar shelter was inhumanely small, or if he had sparse access to necessities. In fact, his little rabbit hole was distinctly more luxurious than what most men would ever experience in their daily lives. He had spared no expense in making it particularly undetectable by a particular person, and did not bother to be stingy as he furnished it. Thinking on it, however, he realized that he was reminiscing an era long past.

His attention returned to his mirror, he was in all things meticulous. He had allowed himself to be sloppy as of late, but he knew he had to look good for this. His last few minutes alive.

He left his bathroom and walked over to his kitchen, and automatic doors hissing open as he moved from room to room. His kitchen was packed full of all kinds of things, but he did not have to spend a second looking for what he sought. Picking out a bottle among the hundreds on his wine rack, he inspected it closely, in great anticipation. Then, without rushing, walked himself to the counter and pulled out a crystal wine glass. Bottle in one hand and glass in the other, he then walked over to the main room. He carefully placed them both near the computer in the center, sat down, savoring every moment. For once, every single breath he took was sweet. Softly, He said "boot.", and the computer hummed to life.

Softly, He said, "camera on", and on his monitor (too small for his tastes) he saw himself staring back at him.

He paused. Opened the bottle he had brought, and poured himself a glass. He moved it softly across his nose, breathing in, savoring the anticipation. He had saved this particular bottle for a very, very long time.

Then he drank, and the look on his face was disappointment at the taste, then satisfaction at finally scratching an itch he had long willed himself not to. A little braver for it, he sat up. and said, softly still. "begin transmission endgame"

And a little red light told him his transmission had begun.

Loudly, carefully, relishing every syllable he said

"Greetings, everyone."

"I know that as I broadcast this, nobody will be watching, but I know also that he will see the wavelength of my broadcast and that, even now, Superman is coming for me.

My life is measured in the minutes it will take for him to track me past my bypasses and false transmitters, so I will be brief.

If you are capable of watching this, then you are perhaps one of the last hopes for humanity. So i hope for humanity's sake you're on my side. Which is, right now, against him. Along with this transmission I have attached the blueprints for my battlesuit, and the location of the my caches of apokalyptian tech you'll need to build it. Both are heavily encrypted. It's a long shot, but perhaps these will buy you some time to get to them. "

He paused then, and exhaled as if a weight had been lifted off his back. like he had at last passed on a burden he had been shouldering for a long time.

Then,

"I know that I have done a lot of terrible deeds in my time. I'm not repentant. Just a little more...aware. But history, remember this of me:

His words gained strength, and for a second it was filled with all the pride and glory of Lex Luthor victorious.

"I was right."

Almost on cue, alarm sirens starting ringing off, and the room began to flash bright red.

He looked up and said, "alarms disengage." and they did.

His attention returned to the camera.

"I'm down to my last few seconds.

"You." he said, eyes intense. (and, later, after Batman had recovered the footage and watched it, would feel a small chill run up his spine, because it was as if Lex Luthor were speaking and looking directly at him. He, of course, did not show he felt anything.)

"You never gave up against me. Do not give up against this- " Mid-sentence, a wall in the background glowed hot red, and caved in.

Behind Luthor, the camera took Superman, in stoic white armor slowly float in, eyes aflame with rage. The atmosphere of the room dropped into something medieval. Something out of a renaissance painting of Hell.

He opened his mouth and said "Luthor." It was a death knell.

Lex Luthor turned around, hands moving faster then they ever had, as he pulled a futuristic handgun from his desk and fired off a few rounds- then Superman was next to him, crushing the hand holding the gun.

Luthor screamed in pain, but then bit it back, staring Superman in the eye. This close, he could see Superman's mouth turned up a fraction of an inch. _He was enjoying himself._ Luthor, realized. He laughed a bit, saying "Funny how this all turned out, Kent."

But Superman said nothing. He was in that instant vengeance made flesh. Every last inch of him was destruction.

He put his fist through Luthor's chest, effortlessly.

Luthor, slowly entering shock, said softly, difficultly, almost to himself "Kent. To think all this time it was you. Perhaps if I had known things would have been different."

Superman pulled his hand from Luthor's chest, looking him in the eye, saying nothing still.

A dying man, Luthor fell towards Superman, and said "and now, even I am out of your reach."

He died like that, Superman supporting his weight, blood from his chest sliding down the ivory armor.

From the angle of the computer, it was almost as if they were in an embrace between the closest of friends.

And then Superman dropped the carcass, turned to the computer, raising his arms like a forgiving god and said, "Cry out to me in mercy, and your cries will be heard."

Then his eyes glowed red once more, and the video ended at last.

**Next**: The Resistance and Superman engage for the first time! More is revealed of The Last Son of Krypton's "turning."

**Author's Note:**

Chapter two of seven is done! For those of you who think that Supes should have tortured Luthor a bit, or at least made his death more painful, I think the whole chapter was about how Supes had wanted for a long time to put Luthor down, which I tried to parallel with the wine (which still has a little more screentime in the next chapter)

Also, I wanted to show here the possibility that he isn't simply _insane _Joker-style, but rather that his moral's have been let go.

Any thoughts or comments, and ideas of people you think should be pertinent in this story, would be appreciated!


End file.
